I absolutley enjoyed the movie, the style, the actors, costumes, camera work, etc.. It is miles better than the russian movie Vikings.

Steeped in the history of the "Golden Horde" of Batu Khan that established an enormous Mongol Empire in the early 13th century, this is actually quite a decent adventure yarn that pits a brave bunch of Russian soldiers led by Evpatii the Furious (whom, for the purposes of this film may also be called Evpatii the Forgetful as he has significant memory loss issues) against the seemingly invincible invader. It has very definite shades of the "300 Spartans" (1962) style of story about it - the courage of a few dedicated and courageous patriots facing insurmountable odds - and Ilya Malakov has more than a little Michael Fassbender about his performance. It's an end to end action adventure with plenty of battle scenes: nobody is safe as folks are slain left, right and centre regardless of age or sex - in front of the troops of the advancing Khan (Aleksandr Tsoy). I managed to see this with subtitles, which helped enormously with the story. It's, maybe, a bit too long but the effects convey the arctic-style environment in which they all fought, and the accompanying sense of peril quite well and reasonably convincingly. It's a story about pride. bravery, honour and love of country (mercifully, completely lacking in modern day "ye-ha" jingoism) - this time from a Russian perspective, and I quite enjoyed watching it.

Another epic-feeling but strangely muted Eastern adventure flick. I got the same feeling about this as I did with the BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES films from China; maybe it's because they're both communist countries, but films like this feel a little too earnest for their own good. FURIOUS follows a young soldier who loses his memory for a while after his village gets attacked by Mongol warriors only to recover it for a battle at the climax. It's quite obvious stuff, long-winded in its approach, with plenty of action but staged in a way which feels very artificial with a lot of green screen usage and the like. I was left wanting more despite all that they offer.